CDT403 Research Methodology in Natural Sciences and Engineering Theory of Science

1. CDT403 Research Methodology in Natural Sciences and Engineering Theory of Science RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY, WORLDVIEWSCOMPLEXITY AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic School of Innovation, Design and Engineering Mälardalen University

2. Theory of Science Lecture 1SCIENCE, KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH, MEANING. FORMAL LOGICAL SYSTEMS LIMITATIONS Lecture 2 LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION. CRITICAL THINKING. PSEUDOSCIENCE - DEMARCATION Lecture 3RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETAL ASPECTS. PROGRESS. HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY. POSTMODERNISM . COMPLEXITY AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY Lecture 4 GOLEM LECTURE. ANALYSIS OF SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATION: THEORY OF RELATIVITY, COLD FUSION, GRAVITATIONAL WAVES Lecture 5 COMPUTING HISTORY OF IDEAS Lecture 6 PROFESSIONAL & RESEARCH ETHICS

3. RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY, WORLDVIEWS • SCIENCE IN MICROCOSMOS AND IN MACROCOSMOS • SCIENCE, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY • SCIENCE, SOCIETY, ECONOMY – TRIPLE HELIX • SCIENCE, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, PROGRESS • HISTORY OF SCIENCE THEORY • SCIENCE WARS AND PEACE • CYBERNETICS AS A LANGUAGE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY COMMUNICATION • TRANSDISCIPLINARY, INTERDISCIPLINARY AND CROSS DISCIPLINARY RESEARCH • AN EXAMPLE OF PARADIGM SHIFT IN SCIENCE: COPERNICAN REVOLUTION

4. SCIENCE OBJECTS DOMINATING METHOD Simple Reductionism (analysis) Logic &Mathematics Abstract objects:propositions, numbers, ... Deduction Natural Sciences Natural objects: physical bodies, fields and interactions, living organisms ... Hypothetico-deductive method Social Sciences Social objects:human individuals, groups, society, .. Hypothetico-deductive method + Hermeneutics Humanities Cultural objects: human ideas, actions and relationships, language, artefacts… Hermeneutics Complex Holism (synthesis) SCIENCE IN MICRO AND MACROCOSMOS Physical Sciences, Objects and Methods

5. CLASSICAL SCIENCES HAVE SPECIFIC AREAS OF VALIDITY

6. Different Levels of Organisation – The Structure of Matter

7. DNA - Deoxyribonucleic Acid DNA is the primary chemical component of chromosomes and the material of which genes are made

8. DNA – BASE MOLECULE

9. MOLECULE - ATOM

10. ATOM – NUCLEUS - NUCLEON

11. ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FORCES http://www.cpepweb.org/images/chart_2006_4.jpg

12. MODEL vs ”REALITY” http://www.iumsc.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/demoselect.cgi

13. MODELS OF ORGANIC MOLECULES

14. Different Representations of the Same Molecule http://www.iumsc.indiana.edu/graphics/jamm2.1.html

15. IMAGES Santa Cruz scientists have taken a detailed picture, using x-ray crystallography, of a complete ribosome, the small cellular component which translates genetic information into proteins. Fluorescence images of rhodamine B molecules obtained by Fluorescence Imaging and Spectroscopy of Single Molecules http://www.aip.org/physnews/graphics/html/ribosome.html

16. ATOM • Images of ultracold rubidium atoms trapped in different configurations of laser beams. Left to right: dual 1-D traps, crossed 1-D traps, and 3-D lattice trap formed at trap intersections. Model of atom http://www.aip.org/mgr/png/Physics News Graphics

17. “REAL WORLD” “REAL WORLD” COMPARISON: SIMPLIFIED SIMPLIFIED AS IT IS: AS IT IS: DOES IT WORK? DOES IT WORK? MODEL MODEL MODELED MODELED PHENOMENA PHENOMENA COMPARISON MODELLING

18. MODEL & SIMULATION Rowley's original orrery, 1712. The orrery was made by John Rowley of London for Charles Boyle, fourth Earl of Orrery. The instrument acquired its current name after it was popularized by 17th century essayist, Sir Richard Steele. The solar system model showed the respective motions of the Earth and Moon around the Sun and was copied from an earlier example made by the famous clockmaker George Graham (1673-1713) for Prince Eugene of Savoy.Science Museum London/ Science & Society Picture Library

19. SUN

20. SUN

21. SUN Long-lasting sunspots appear in this sequence of drawings made by Galileo himself as he observed the Sun from June 2nd to 26th, 1612

22. SCIENCE VS TECHNOLOGY The invention of gunpowder, c 14th century. Allegorical interpretation of the invention of gunpowder, showing the devil on the shoulder of a monk involved in an experiment. It is thought that the artist intended the monk in the picture to be Berthold Schwarz, a semi-legendary German Franciscan monk. Schwarz was a nickname (German for 'black') due to Berthold's chemical experiments. The picture is an alchemical engraving.Science Museum London/ Science & Society Picture Library

23. TECHNOLOGY EXPANDS OUR WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT THINGS, EXPANDS OUR WAYS OF DOING THINGS. Herbert A. Simon

24. Logic & Mathematics Natural Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology, …) Social Sciences (Economics, Sociology, Anthropology, …) The Humanities (Philosophy, History,Linguistics …) CLASSICAL SCIENCES –LANGUAGE BASED SCHEME Culture (Religion, Art, …) Computing

25. SCIENCES BASED ON SEVERAL RESEARCH FIELDS Our scheme represents classical sciences.   Many modern sciences are stretching over several research fields of our scheme. Computer science e.g. includes the field of AI that has its roots in mathematical logic and mathematics but uses physics, chemistry and biology and even has parts where medicine and psychology are very important.

26. WHAT IS AFTER ALL THIS THING CALLED SCIENCE The whole is more than the sum of its parts. Aristotle, Metaphysica

27. Science Technology Object unchangeable changeable Principle of motion inside outside End knowing the general knowing the concrete Activity theoria: end in itself poiesis: end external Method abstraction modeling complexity Process conceptualizing optimizing Innovation form discovery invention Type of result law-like statements rule-like statements Time perspective long-term short-term SCIENCE, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY  Aristotle's Distinctions between Science and Technology

28. Research Development Science Technology SCIENCE, RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNOLOGY

29. SCIENCE AND SOCIETYTHE TRIPLE HELIX MODEL SOCIETY • Knowledge society based on ICT • The triple helix model: • ACADEMIC • INDUSTRY • GOVERMENT CULTURE SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

30. SOCIETAL ASPECTS OF SCIENCE Science has undoubtedly several important facets: - insights in foundational issues, - applications - societal aspects. Sciences are promoting rational and analytical discussions of central issues of concern to scientists and other scholars, and to the public at large both in terms of knowledge production and practical applications.

31. SOCIETAL ASPECTS OF SCIENCERESEARCH COMMUNITY AS INFORMATIONAL NETWORK “ .. if we consider Galileo alone in his cell muttering, ‘and yet it moves,’ with the recent meeting at Kyoto – where heads of states, lobbyists, and scientists were assembled together in the same place to discuss the Earth – we measure the difference ..” Bruno Latour

32. SOCIETAL ASPECTS OF SCIENCE Further reading on current topics: http://www.sciencemag.org Essays on Science and Society Science magazine

33. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (1) Logical Positivism During much of this century, “positivism” has dominated discussions of the scientific method. Positivism recognizes as valid only the knowledge based on experience.

34. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (2) Logical Positivism 1920s: Logical positivism (Vienna Circle), accepted as its central doctrine Wittgenstein’s verification theory of meaning that statements or propositions are meaningful only if they can be empirically verified. This differentiate scientific (meaningful) statements from purely metaphysical (meaningless) statements.

35. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (3) Logical Empiricism Carnap replaced the concept of verification with the idea of “gradually increasing confirmation”. Universal statements could never be verified, but they may be “confirmed” by the accumulation of successful empirical tests. Thus, science progresses through the accumulation of multiple confirming instances obtained under a wide variety of circumstances and conditions.

36. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (4) Logical Empiricism Logical empiricists believe that all knowledge begins with observation. This leads to empirical generalizations among observable entities. As our ideas progress, theories are formulated deductively to explain the generalizations, and new evidence is required to confirm or disconfirm the theories. Throughout the process, data are given precedence. The entire process is viewed as essentially inductive.

37. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (6)Popper and Falsificationism  Unlike positivists, Popper accepted the fact that “observation always presupposes the existence of some system of expectations”. For Popper, the scientific process begins when observations clash with existing theories or preconceptions. To solve this scientific problem, a theory is proposed and the logical consequences of the theory (hypotheses) are subjected to rigorous empirical tests.

38. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (7)Popper and Falsificationism The objective of testing is the refutation of the hypothesis. When a theory’s predictions are falsified, it has to be ruthlessly rejected. Those theories that survive falsification are said to be corroborated (= confirmed) and tentatively accepted.

39. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (8)Popper and Falsificationism Thus the problem of induction is seemingly avoided by denying that science rests on inductive inference. Note nevertheless that Popper’s notion of corroboration itself depends on an inductive inference. According to Popper’s falsificationism, science progresses by a process of “conjectures and refutations”.

40. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (9)Popper and Falsificationism The most severe problem with Popper’s version of the scientific method is that it is impossible to conclusively refute a theory because realistic test situations depend on much more than just the theory under investigation.

41. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (10)Kuhn’s Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) was the one of most influential philosophers of science of the twentieth century. His The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is one of the most cited academic books. His contribution to the philosophy of science meant not only a break with several positivist doctrines but also established a new style of philosophy of science directly related to the history of science.

42. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (10)Kuhn’s Scientific Revolutions Kuhns account of the development of science held that science enjoys periods of stable growth interrupted by scientific revolutions, to which he added the controversial ‘incommensurability thesis’, that theories from differing periods suffer from certain deep kinds of failure of comparability. For Kuhn competing paradigms were incommensurable - they involved looking at the world in radically different ways. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

43. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (11)Kuhn’s Scientific Revolutions In Kuhn’s view, the individual scientist’s decision to pursue a new paradigm must be made on faith in its “future promise”. Science progresses through “paradigm shifts”, but there is no guarantee that it progresses toward anything - least of all toward “the truth”.

44. EVOLUTION OF SCIENTIFIC THEORY (12) Kuhn’s Scientific Revolutions In criticism of Kuhn, some writers have suggested alternative worldview models as for example “research tradition” concept, which attempts to restore rationality to theory selection by expanding the concept of rationality.

45. Paul Feyerabend: Anything Goes Feyerabend, held that there was no such thing as the scientific method and saw science as an essentially anarchic enterprise in which ‘anything goes’. It is true that there is no single method that marks out science from any other form of rational enquiry but nonetheless there are a range of criteria - such as explanatory scope, predictive power, experimental repeatability, consistency with other well-established theory - that make it a different sort of enterprise to, say, astrology or alchemy.

46. POSTMODERNISM Postmodernism is an artistic, architectural, philosophical, and cultural movement which formed in reaction to modernism. Modernism may be seen as the culmination of the Enlightenment's quest for an rational aesthetics, ethics, and knowledge, postmodernism is concerned with how the authority of those ideals, sometimes called metanarratives, are undermined through fragmentation, and deconstruction.

47. POSTMODERNISM Jean-François Lyotard famously described postmodernism as an "incredulity toward metanarratives" (Lyotard, 1984). Postmodernism attacks the notions of monolithic universals and encourages fractured, fluid and multiple perspectives and is marked by an increasing importance in the ideas from the Sociology of knowledge. metanarratives-"grand narratives“, form of ‘universal truth'

48. POSTMODERNISM All knowledge, scientific knowledge included, is held to be socially constructed. Science is therefore merely one story among others. The world we know is one that is constructed by human discourses, giving us not so much truths as ‘truth-effects’ which may or may not be pragmatically useful. From this point of view, epistemologically speaking, a scientific text is understood as being on a par with a literary text.

49. SCIENCE WARS (1) In early 1996 the physicist Alan Sokal created a controversy by publishing two journal articles. The first article, Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity appeared in the journal Social Text. It pretended to be, and was taken by the editors of Social Text as, a serious article on the implications of developments in the field of cultural studies for developments in modern physics, and vice-versa.

50. SCIENCE WARS (2) The second article, A Physicist Experiments with Cultural Studies, appeared in the journal Lingua Franca just as issue of Social Text containing the first article came out. It revealed that the first article was in fact a hoax.